Under a Gibbous Moon

The Menifee School district in southern California has decided to ban a book from the classrooms for containing vulgar words.

The dictionary.

That’s right. It is a filthy book. Almost every conceivable obscene and vulgar word is not only contained within its pages, but defined as well. Sure it’s always been this way, but they are just now finding out about this (and the tooth fairy).

This is just the height of stupidity. Roth v United States defined obscenity as appealing only to prurient interests. If you get titillated from reading the dictionary then you are going to have a real hard time handling television.

Miller v California then went on to further refine the obscene as having no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. The dictionary, of course, is the repository of our language and is therefore of great scientific value. That’s why we keep them in schools, universities, and other such places of learning.

But, of course, the book burning shall not stop there. Betti Cadmus, the school district spokeswoman, has vowed to scour the dictionary to uncover the filth that lay within.

“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature.”

Hey look, your tax payer dollars at work.

Hat tip: Boing Boing

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Related (maybe) posts:

1. School District decides that reading the dictionary is too boring
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3. Further Embarrassment